Word of mouth propagation in online social networks

Online social networks (OSNs) are becoming an important propagation platform for Word of mouth (WOM). Therefore, it is of great significance to study the propagation of WOM in OSNs. A WOM propagation model named N-P-N is proposed in this paper, and some simulation experiments are carried out to investigate the mechanism of WOM propagation. From the sensitivity analysis of degree of initial information source node, it can be seen that the degree of initial information source node determines the scope and speed of the propagation of WOM in OSNs in some extent. Then the sensitivity analysis of number of initial information source nodes shows that the initial source nodes are crucial for controlling the propagation of negative information in OSNs. Moreover, from the user behavior respect, it is found that different user behavior in OSNs causes different propagation results, the more users who are willing to diffuse WOM, the more scope WOM can propagate and the faster the information diffuses. Findings in this paper are helpful for enterprises to form an effective WOM.